Problem with max

[jbsniff]

I'm using 3d Studio max 6.0, which works great except for one problem. Right now I'm working on something that's reletively memory intensive, but I have a lot of ram so it generally isn't a problem. Any way sometimes when I'm working and click "zoom extents" or try to rotate the object or my view the entire thing disappears in all but one viewport. This only happens when I move around in teh viewport. What do you think this could be caused by?

[FutureMan]

How's your video card? What display driver are you using; Software, Open GL, or Direct X?

[jbsniff]

I have an ATI Radeon 9800 with 128megs. I'm using Directx 9.

[jon_leide]

If you don't wanna read it all just read the second last paragraph.

To get things straight. Max doesn't run at all very well with Direct3D drivers. Mainly that sucks. I've noticed 2 things. Slower updates and some major redrawing issues.

ATI vs Nvidia, well generally ATI has had better OpenGL support but things change, and today it's basically the same stuff.

BUT... (Theres always lots of the but's.) A video card designed for 3d graphics is way better than any Geforece FX 5950 or Ati Radeon 9700. These cards are massive low poly in game rending stuff. What you need is a solid OpenGL solution and a good 3D Modeling Card.

e.g $299 (GeForece FX Quadro 500)

I'm pro Nvidia in this case, but ATI is as good as any other manufacture just make sure you get the things you need to get an optimal solution. Now, I'm really overdoing it here and mentioning alot of extra info you dont need to concern but anyway it's not to bad to read it.

the Quadro FX 500, is based on the FX GPU/VPU or what they call it and delivers a kickass preformance when it comes to amature 3d modeling. it's cheap and not to powerful but if your a 3d person you would't reject this pice of hardware.

Let's do some math. (simpel stuff)

Nvidia Quadro FX 500 - 3000 ($299-$2999)
Nvidia OpenGL drivers (these ones are new, and the best found)
Nvidia 3ds Max Acceleration Drivers.

this adds up to some major kickass preformance, and you will be able to go far with this.

well, that concludes it. this is some heavy kickass stuff. and i think you can get real far on this kind of graphic setup. it's defenetly my next buy, and it does provide power needed. but, be careful about it, it' can be expensive, and don't forget ATI provides almost the same solution and preformance/cost ratio ATI is the better choice. but Nvidia can deliver abit more power from there Quadro FX 3000.

To get to the point. a poor redrawing and anoying disapearing stuff in the viewport is mainly a draw back of old or pure gameing video cards. (sometimes OpenGL drivers is the better choice.) But when it comes to the "Pro Modeling 3d Graphic Cards" OpenGL is the only choice.

So this is a long post with a really messy disscussion and hopefully you gained something out of reading this. Please check out Tom's Hardware guide at (http://www.tomshardware.com) they do alot of hardware tests and this is very good consulting in case of advice in what i might need to suit my needs. And i thing theres a really good form with lots of hardware experts willing to answer any futer questions. (or maybe I can help you?)

Cheers John

[FutureMan]

Yeah, maybe try switching to Open Gl instead of Direct3d or if you can hide some of the objects/meshes you're not working on at the moment.

It's hard to say how to optimize the scene without knowing what is going on in it so I'll just say use your best judgement and sometimes you'll just have to wait.

[jbsniff]

Thanks guys for your help, I switched to Open Gl and it seems to be working better.

Here's what I'm working on, tell me what you think.
rifle (http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14091)

[Torlok2002]

Originally posted by jon_leide


ATI vs Nvidia, well generally ATI has had better OpenGL support but things change, and today it's basically the same stuff.


Cheers John


I thought Nvidia currently performed better in OpenGL performance..... hmmm anyways.... both have similar performance.


As an alterantive to buying more hardware... you could just set some objects to display as bounding box or hide them completely... I would only go the new hardware route if you will regularly be working on these sort of projects.

[jon_leide]

Nvidia has gone past ATi. But Nvidias drivers in the past... oh my... what a disaster.

Go OpenGL go Nvidia. It's a good choice. Now let's just hope that ATi comes up with some even cheaper solutions, that way the ways of competetive companies will deliver better hardware faster and cheaper.